


Falling

by PopPriceless



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beach Vacation, But the story mainly focuses on Tony and Steve, Falling In Love, M/M, Maybe a couple of flashback scenes, Other characters may be added as chapters progress, Peter is super adorable, Peter is very cute, Some characters make a brief appearence, Steve works at a hotel, Superfamily (Marvel), Tony is a good dad, Tony is a really good dad, Tony is bad at flirting, lots of fluff, not too much angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-04-28 01:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14438670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PopPriceless/pseuds/PopPriceless
Summary: Tony brings his four-year-old son Peter to the beach. It’s supposed to be a quick weekend getaway, until he (quite literally) falls for a hotel employee named Steve.





	1. Maralyn Shores

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I'd quickly put this out there before the wave of infinity war related fics start coming, although that's kind of already happened. Oh well. Hope you enjoy some fluff before you watch a whole lot of pain. :)

Tony hated the beach. Something about the screaming kids and the sand that was always clinging to him wasn’t very appealing, not to mention the traffic and the weather and the constant feeling of “oh god when will this ever be over?”.

But as soon as he adopted Peter, he knew he had to put that aside. Going to the beach was an experience he thought every kid needed, as much as he despised it. Besides, the beach they were at now wasn’t bad. A relatively unknown place called Maralyn Shores, it had everything one could hope for. Calm, brisk waters. Minimal crowds. A nice hotel. For once, he didn’t mind the sand currently settling into every crevice of his body.

“Daddy! I found one!”

Cheeks stretched into a smile, Peter picked up something from the dense sand beneath them. Tony watched him carefully, squatting down to be eye-level. “What’s that?”

Peter giggled, his arms stretching to drop a tiny cream-colored shell into Tony’s palm. “I found another for you.”

Tony laughed, holding it in his hand. “Thank you, Petey.” He said, thoughtfully swiping his thumb over the shell’s cool surface. “I like this one a lot.”

Peter tilted his head to the side. “Why?”

“It’s small. Like you.” Tony grinned, ruffling his son’s slightly damp brown curls. The saltwater had sprayed them in an almost sticky way, and Tony cringed at the thought of washing Peter’s sandy hair for the second night in a row.

“I’m _not_ small.” Peter grumbled, his arms crossed in the most angry way he could manage.

It was more cute than angry, of course, and Tony tried his best not to chuckle. “Alright then.”

He squeezed the shell in his hand before dropping it into his pocket, along with the many other shells Peter had collected for him. He then straightened up and looked ahead of him, watching bright sunlight dimming steadily on the beach’s horizon. The amount of light meant sunset was close, and he was willing to bet their hotel was _very_ far away.

“Wanna head back to the hotel now, Peter? We’ve been out here for awhile.” He finally suggested, looking down at his son. 

Peter immediately nodded. “I’m hungry. And tired.”

“I’ll get you something to eat when we get back to our room. Want me to carry you for a little bit?”

Peter shrugged his shoulders, but stuck out his arms and stared at Tony with bright eyes. Tony took that as a sign he wanted to be carried, and picked him up with some difficulty.

“You’re getting pretty big, huh?”

Peter just nodded sleepily, resting his tired head on Tony’s shoulder.

_________________

Just as he expected, his hotel was far away. Tony’s arms were aching and his back was hurting by the time he saw the tall building, a fast asleep Peter settled into those sore arms. Once he made it to the stretch of beach behind the hotel though, he let out a sigh of relief. Soon he’d be able to go into his hotel room and put Peter down.

It had been a difficult twenty minute walk. He had held Peter for the first five minutes of it, but when he tried to set the four-year-old on the ground again he found him passed out on his shoulder. Tony knew that Peter hated being waked  
and that he could sleep through an entire earthquake if the opportunity arose, so he let him sleep peacefully.

He soon realized that his decision was a mistake. Not only were his arms and back stiff, but he was so tired that his vision was beginning to blur from forcing his eyes open. He felt like he was going to pass out at any moment, but he was too close to the side entrance of his hotel to stop walking now. All he had to do was take out his room card to open the door, and he could walk in and take the elevator to his room. All he had to do was keep walking, keep opening his eyes every couple of seconds, keep remembering to hold onto Peter. It wasn’t that hard as long as he could see the entrance to the hotel in front of him-

Something slipped between the sidewalk he was walking on and his cheap flip-flop and he was thrown off-balance.

“Shit-”

His automatic response was to hold Peter tighter to him, shutting his eyes as he felt himself fall backwards. His heart was beating so fast and his eyes were squeezed so tightly together that he barely noticed strong arms holding him inches from the ground.

His fear of falling flat on his ass soon dissipated. He opened his eyes painstakingly slow, almost afraid of what he was going to open them to.

When he did open them, he saw a criminally handsome man staring down at him with worried blue eyes. Those eyes were framed by the most windswept blonde hair he’d ever seen, messy but somehow put together at the same time. The stranger's lips were pursed in focus, like he was struggling to hold him despite the fact his arms were solid and unmoving. Tony felt his heart start to beat fast again.

The man holding him opened his mouth in shock. “Shit- I’m so sorry- I just saw you falling and you had that kid in your arms and there was no other way-”

“I-It’s Fine.” Tony whispered, staring up at the stranger in similar shock. _How in the fucking world did this guy catch me?_

“Should I? I mean- Can I help you up?” The man asked after a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence between them.

Tony shook his head to clear it and once again looked into those blue eyes. He nodded once, and the stranger started to transfer both of the arms at Tony’s back to around his waist. He pulled upward, slowly bringing Tony back on his feet.

Tony knew he was back on solid ground when he felt the vacancy of almost inhumanly-strong arms around him. Looking up at the man who saved him, he smiled. “Wow. Thank you. I would’ve been… really hurt if you hadn’t caught me.”

“It’s nothing. I’m just relieved I was able to get to you in time.” He said, running a hand through his mussed up hair as he grinned at Tony.

Now that Tony was on two feet again, he noticed the stranger was wearing a typical hotel uniform- a floral shirt with tucked in black shorts. Upon closer inspection, he also noticed a small name tag attached left-hand side of the shirt.

“...Steve Rogers.” He read softly.

“Y-Yeah.” Steve said, glancing down at his name tag briefly. “I work at the hotel.”

“I’m Tony. It’s nice to meet you.” Tony said, taking one arm off of Peter so he could hold his hand in front of Steve.

Steve grasped his hand with a kind of softness that Tony didn’t expect from someone so… muscled. He let out an involuntary breath that he hadn’t realize he’d been holding, causing Steve to chuckle slightly. “Nice to meet you too. I’m guessing you’re here because you’re on vacation?”

Tony nodded and quickly brought his hand back to wrap around his son. “We came for the weekend. Heard about the beach from a friend.”

Steve’s eyes seemed to brighten, his entire face lighting up and Tony was sure he’d never seen someone so happy before. “I’ve lived at this beach my whole life and I’ve never gotten bored. The funny thing is, not many people know about it. It’s rare that this place ever gets busy. This week has been a lot more crowded than usual, though.”

“Really? It was almost empty when we visited it today. I can’t believe more people don’t come down here.” Tony said, watching as Steve nodded enthusiastically.

“That’s what everyone always says! But…” He sighed, staring towards the dark sea behind them. “I guess it’s better that way. It’s more peaceful.”

Another silence fell between them, this one quickly filled by the sound of crashing waves. Tony watched as the wind swept Steve’s hair back, somehow making it more disheveled than it was before. Steve turned to look at him again, those bright blue eyes scanning over Tony. Checking to see if he was okay. Checking him out…?

Tony bit the inside of his mouth to quiet his thoughts. Steve was just looking him over to see if he was okay. And Tony himself was just tired, he was imagining things. _So, so tired._ Yet he found himself wanting to talk to Steve still, despite how heavy his eyelids felt.

“I… should probably get back to work. It was really nice meeting you, Tony.”

Tony opened his mouth, trying to form the words to tell Steve he wanted more time. More time to talk to him about the beach and the hotel and how lucky it was that Steve caught him just in time. But those words didn’t form, and he silently watched as Steve walked away.

_____________________________

 

“Alright Peter, what do you want to do today?”

Peter swung his arms, strolling down the hallway until he stopped with Tony in front of the elevators. “I want to go back to the beach. Please Dada?”

Tony didn’t particularly want to go back to the beach after his almost-fall, but he found himself nodding anyway. Peter’s adorable face and toothy grin made him forget about his sore back and arms from his walk on the beach, and he found it hard to say no.

An elevator came up to their level and its doors opened. Walking into the empty elevator hand-in-hand with Peter, Tony pressed the button for the lobby. As the doors closed, Peter continued to babble energetically about nothing. His extended sleep from last night proved to be very effective at improving his mood.

Tony wasn’t as lucky. With the terrible amount of sleep he got last night, he knew a headache was bound to pop up at any moment. Below him, Peter continued to bounce around, pulling his arm every few seconds to ask a random question.

“Can you read another book tomorrow?” 

“Yes, we’ll read some more books before bed.”

“What’s your favorite color, Dada?”

First taking a steadying breath, Tony looked down and responded. “Red. Gold. How about you, Peter?”

Peter took a second to consider. “My favorite color is blue. And red! Just like you.”

After Peter’s third off-topic question, the elevator finally reached the ground floor. Peter’s babble halted, and Tony grabbed his son’s hand as they walked into the crowded lobby.

It seemed like all of the hotel’s guests were in the lobby at the same time. People were walking out to the beach, entering the hotel restaurant for breakfast, coming from stairs and sitting on the wide couches in the lobby- and all of it was happening all at once. It was chaotic, and the headache that Tony predicted was going to happen suddenly started to happen. The masses of people were too distracting and loud, making his eyes blurry as he gripped onto Peter’s hand and headed toward the hotel’s restaurant for their breakfast.

In the middle of a crowd full of tourists, Tony felt himself stumble forward- causing Peter’s hand to slip out of his. He tripped and landed on something in front of him, soon realizing that something was a someone. Body slouched upon the person’s slightly outstretched arms, he blushed hotly.

“Shit. Not again.” He muttered, looking up to see the person’s face.

Blond hair, gorgeous smile, blue eyes that Tony immediately linked back to last night.

“Steve?”

Steve chuckled and stared down at Tony. “What are the odds? Glad I caught you. Again.”

Tony tried to pin down a specific emotion he felt, but it was masked by the reminder that he let go of Peter’s hand in a crowded room full of people. 

He threw himself off of Steve and looked behind him, stomach dropping to the floor with fear. “Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit.”

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Steve asked as Tony desperately looked around the room.

“I just- he was right here! I can't fucking believe I lost him. I’m such a fucking idiot-”

Something clicked in Steve’s mind. “Your son. Did he...?”

Tony nodded, somehow understanding what Steve was about to say despite his panicking. “When I started falling, he slipped out of my hand. Jesus, I’m a terrible parent.”

“No you’re not.” Steve said, starting to glance around at the thinning crowd. “You’re going to find him. _We’re_ going to find him. I promise.”

Tony swallowed nervously. “You’re... going to help me?”

“Of course. I know the hotel better than anybody. I can help.” Steve said, smiling reassuringly.

In that moment, Tony felt himself calm down. At least, as much as he could given the circumstances. Something about Steve being there to help him made him feel more at ease.

In the pocket of his shirt, Tony gently swiped his thumb over the small cream-colored seashell Peter gave to him at the beach. He had tucked it away earlier that morning when Peter had insisted that he keep it with him. At first, Tony thought he was being difficult. Now, he held the seashell with watering eyes.  
_____________________________

Steve helped Tony search through every room in the lobby, and after thirty minutes they still couldn’t find him. After each failed attempt, Tony’s heart sank.

Eventually, both noticed an outflow of people heading to the beach. Steve was the first one to talk, clearing his throat pointedly as Tony stared at the ground.

“I think we should look outside.”

Tony sighed. “I know, I know.” 

“Okay. Let’s go.” Steve said, stepping towards the entrance. When he noticed Tony wasn’t following him, he slowly made his way back to where he was. “You okay?”

Tony’s eyes began to well with tears again. “If I don’t find him, I don’t know what I’m going to do. He’s my only family. I don’t have anyone else.”

“Hey. We’re going to find him.” Steve said, stepping closer. “And after we do, I’m buying us all a nice breakfast at the restaurant across the street. You must be starving.”

“No, don’t.” Tony insisted. “I’m not even hungry.”

As if on cue, Tony’s stomach growled. The noise caught them both off guard, and Steve let out a slight smile.

“I knew it. Once we find him, we’ll eat. On me.”

Tony gave a weak nod and they both started their search outside of the hotel, walking past family after family heading to the beach. Tony tried to focus on what was in front of him, but all he could think about was how badly he managed to fuck up. How if he had somehow been able to prevent that fall from happening, Peter wouldn’t be missing. How if he had somehow gotten more sleep, he wouldn’t have been so distracted when he was walking and he’d be enjoying breakfast with his son. Everything would be normal.

Not a second later, two small arms were tightly wrapped around his legs. 

There was one second of disbelief, where Tony couldn’t believe it was actually Peter. After his initial moment of shock, he wrapped his arms around his son in a tight hug.

“Hi Dada.” Peter mumbled quietly.

Tony let go of Peter and scanned his face for any signs of distress. “Are you okay, Petey?”

He nodded. “I wanted to go to the beach. I got lost.”

“But you’re okay, right?” Tony asked, staring at his son in still-lingering worry 

“Yeah. I’m okay. But I’m hungry.”

Tony sighed in relief. “Okay. Would you like to get breakfast now?”

Peter nodded. “Please.”

The sun started to grow hot, so Tony held onto Peter’s hand and they walked the short way back into the hotel. His son seemed a lot less animated than he was before, which worried him. Still, he was back and wasn’t hurt, which is what Tony tried to focus on.

“Dada?”

Tony looked down at him as they entered the lobby. “Yes, Peter?”

“Who is that?” Peter asked, pointing his finger at Steve.

Tony had gotten so caught up in his feelings about having Peter back that he had completely ignored Steve. Tony looked up at him with an apologetic smile, which the blond quickly shook his head at. “You’re fine.” Steve whispered to him.

Tony grinned and looked back down at Peter. “He’s a… friend that helped me find you. He’s going to join us for breakfast.”

“‘Kay.” Peter shrugged.

Tony watched Steve check his watch, his face glancing up in slight worry. “The place across the street closes breakfast in a few minutes. We gotta hurry.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

____________

They hurried towards the tiny restaurant, Tony’s hand tightly clinging onto Peter’s as Steve led them through a small crowd of tourists. As they got closer and closer, Tony realized how tiny the restaurant actually was and stared at Steve in confusion.

“What? How can you eat in there?”

“Wait, wha- oh, I forgot to tell you.” Steve said, walking towards the front of the small hut. “It’s all outdoor seating. You order your food and they bring it to a table outside. The tables are all surrounded by a really beautiful garden. You guys will love it.”

“Ah, Okay.” Tony nodded, staring at the tiny wooden shack for a few seconds longer before taking notice of the menu.

“Daddy, can I get chicken nuggets?”

Steve eyes melted and he looked to Tony with a smile plastered on his face. “Aw. He’s adorable.”

“Ha, yeah. I should probably start feeding him less chicken nuggets and more vegetables, though. Right buddy?” Tony grinned, staring down at Peter

“Noooo.” Peter groaned, making both Steve and Tony laugh.

They walked up and ordered their food, which Steve insisted he should pay for- despite Tony’s protests. A few minutes after ordering, Tony held Peter’s hand and followed Steve down a stone path leading to picnic tables they could eat at. Tony took note of the hanging flowers and swinging palm trees that made the dining area shady and beautiful, and he immediately was drawn to a table in the shade of one of the large palms.

“Let’s eat there.” He said, pointing to the picnic table that was situated in the corner of the garden.

“That’s one of my favorite tables.” Steve nodded. “You can see every single flower from there. It’s gorgeous.”

There was something soft in the tone of Steve’s voice that made Tony’s entire body feel warm. He tried to ignore the strange feeling, sitting across from Steve at the picnic table as he attempted to avoid the other man’s eyes.

In the seat next to him, Peter was looking around at everything, brown eyes filled with wonder. “Look Daddy. A red flower. Your favorite color. And look! Blue! My favorite color! There’s so many!”

“Yeah, there’s lots of flowers here.” Tony said distractedly, looking around at the scenery.

“You know, a lot of these plants aren’t even from here.” Steve grinned, eyes lit up with a wonder similar to Peter’s. “Out here we usually get too much rain, which makes flowers pretty rare. But the owners of the restaurant work hard to make these plants grow, even using a tarp to cover the plants and doing so much gardening for… this. To any tourist, it just looks like a garden with a few plants. But to the people who live at this beach, it’s the most amazing thing for miles around.”

Tony finally watched Steve again, his bright eyes glancing around the place like it was an amusement park rather than a garden. Tony’s heart melted a second time that day.

“You like it a lot, don’t you?”

Steve looked to Tony, pausing a few seconds before breaking into an even wider smile. “It’s amazing.”

Tony’s stomach flipped and he cleared his throat awkwardly. His cheeks were burning, eyes darting everywhere but Steve’s face. If he looked there, he’d just get more nervous. His cheeks would get that same fiery sensation and he’d once again silently wonder why he felt so strange around Steve. 

“Oh, there’s the food for us.” Steve pointed, a waitress coming to drop off a tray filled with three drinks and three plates of food. 

Peter immediately peeked up from his seat, bouncing up and down where he sat. “Look, my pancakes!”

The waitress set down the food, her face perking up when she noticed Steve. “Hey! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the hotel?”

Steve shook his head at her, his face breaking into a smile. “Hey Nat. I’m just buying breakfast for a… guest and his son. Um, Nat, this is Tony. Tony, this is one of my friends, Natasha.”

Tony watched confusion ripple through Natasha as she nodded. “Oh, hello… How did you guys… meet? Are you two friends?”

Tony didn’t know how to reply, instead looking to Steve for his reaction. The blond just pursed his lips, nodding after a few seconds. 

“We just met yesterday, but we’ve had a couple of… interactions together. First I saved him from tripping and falling on the ground, then I helped him find _that_ one.” They all turned to Peter, who was eating pieces of fruit off of his plate. “He went missing earlier this morning.”

Natasha turned to Tony in concern. “Oh no, what happened?”

“He just got a little lost.” Tony said, patting Peter softly on his back. “He started to rile up a little bit this morning, which is why he ran away, I think.”

“Well, it’s good you found him.” She bent down slightly to wave at Peter, who was on the other end of the picnic table. “Hey little dude. Have fun at the beach, Okay?”

Peter looked up from his breakfast and giggled. “Kay. Thanks.”

“See you later, Steve. Nice meeting you, Tony.” Natasha nodded at both before tucking her food tray under her arm and walking away.

Tony watched her walk back to the hut a few feet away before turning back to Steve. “You didn’t mention my second fall. The one that happened this morning.”

“What? Oh. Yeah.” Steve shrugged and speared some of his food onto a fork. “I didn’t know if you were embarrassed about falling onto me twice.”

“It’s not that embarrassing. Everybody trips and falls sometimes.” Tony insisted, his cheeks turning a subtle shade of red. “You could have told her. I’m not embarrassed. I mean, it’s not embarrassing, right?”

Steve chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. “I mean… maybe a little.”

“Hey!”

“What?! It’s kind of embarrassing. You fell on me _twice_.” Steve laughed, Tony maintaining an unamused expression as he spoke. 

A few seconds after Steve stopped laughing, Tony felt a tug on his shirt. He looked down at his side, seeing a pouting Peter with drooping eyelids and slouched shoulders. “Daddy, I’m tired. Can I sleep?”

Tony sighed and bit his lip. He knew that once Peter was tired he wouldn’t be able to do much else for the rest of the day. That left him with two options- forcing them to spend a short few minutes at the beach together, or going back to the hotel room so Peter could take a short nap.

The decision was pretty clear to him. “Why don’t we go back to the room so you can sleep, Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Peter grinned

“I can walk you guys back, if you want.” Steve shrugged. “I’m kind of bored, to be honest. And it’s been fun hanging out with you.”

“That'd be great.” Tony said, his stomach once again doing those flips that made him feel so lightheaded and warm.

______________________________

“Um, Tony? I don’t mean to pry, but I kind of want to ask you something.”

Tony watched Peter for a few more seconds, completely making sure his son was asleep before he turned to Steve. The blond looked nervous, his eyes avoiding contact with Tony as he ran a hand through his hair anxiously.

“You know, we can talk right outside of this room, if you’d like.” Tony shrugged. “Or we could stay in here, but we’d have to whisper because of Peter.” 

“It might just be easier to… go outside then. If that’s okay with you.” 

Tony nodded, walking to the front of his hotel room as Steve trailed behind him. He opened the door and walked into the hallway, his eyes tracing over Steve’s flushed expression. Tony still wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask about, but it clearly had him shaken up- judging by the way he was acting.

Steve bent his head and stared down at the ground. “Well, I was wondering… You don’t have to answer of course, but I was just curious if-”

“C’mon Rogers, spit it out.” Tony chuckled, playfully pushing Steve’s shoulder.

Steve stilled at the touch, eyes finally meeting with Tony. “Okay. I was just wondering… I’ve noticed that it’s just you and Peter here. Do you have-?”

“A wife? No.” Tony shook his head. “Peter’s adopted. I’m… single.”

Steve struggled to hide a smile behind his hand, and Tony’s heart burned with a strange beating that he hadn’t felt in years. He desperately tried to ignore it- he wasn’t in any condition to get feelings for a man he’d likely never see again. But his heart kept beating fast and Steve kept looking at him with a half smile that he couldn’t contain.

“I’m sorry. I’m staring at you.” Steve sighed, looking down at the floor as his cheeks turned red.

Tony, feeling particularly brave, sucked in a breath and grinned. “I don’t mind. You can… stare at me all you want.”

Well, Tony could officially file that into _dumbass things he definitely shouldn’t have said._

“I’m sorry- I didn’t mean- fuck-” He sputtered, the quickest apology he could muster while Steve looked at him with increasing levels of amusement. “I’m so sorry, I really am. God, this is so embarrassing.”

As Tony desperately looked for a potential way to leave the conversation, he noticed a feather-like touch on the outside of his arm. He shivered at the feeling and looked up.

Steve was gently brushing his arm, trying to calm him with a small smile set on his face. “It’s not a big deal, Tony. Promise.”

He then gave a firm pat to Tony’s shoulder, hand lingering slightly in the air after. It was almost like he wanted to keep the contact between them, like he wanted to keep comforting Tony for some reason.

But the moment passed and Tony watched as Steve looked the other way down the hall. 

“I should go. But… If you’d like to hang out more, I work around here pretty much all day. I’m sure you can find me around.”

Tony smiled. “Okay. I’ll… see you.”

“See you, Tony.”

When Steve said his name, Tony felt his smile grow wider. His cheeks burned, and his stomach fluttered so much he almost felt sick.

Tony didn’t expect to get feelings for anyone during a short vacation with his son. But there he was, watching Steve walk away from him with a lovestruck grin on his face and a desperate hope that they’d run into each other again.


	2. Peter’s Best Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter’s grown an attachment to Steve, and Tony isn’t quite sure how to react. Then again, Tony is growing an attachment of his own.

In New York, it was common to see Tony walking hand-in-hand around central park with Peter. Passerby would comment on how patient and calm his son was. He’d wave enthusiastically at every stranger they came across, and Tony couldn’t help but beam with pride at how social his little boy was growing up to be.

But at the current moment, Peter was making Tony regret how proud he had been. Tony knew that Peter got too attached to people, but it was becoming irritating how much he was mentioning Steve at their dinner together.

“Dada! Where’s Steve? He said he’d read our book to me. Can we see Steve again? _Please_ , Daddy. I’ll finish my vegetables!”

It’s not that Tony didn’t want to see Steve. He just knew that his next talk with Steve would be awkward, if it ever even happened. He could almost visualize it. Tenuous glances at each other, Steve smiling sympathetically as he awkwardly attempted to flirt, Peter watching in confusion. He cringed and took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he tried to focus on anything but Steve.

“Please Dada?” Peter asked again, eyes pleading through the dark restaurant. “Can we meet Steve again?”

Tony let out a low sigh and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, Petey. He has to work.”

“But Dada, I wanna see Steve again. He said he was my friend at breakfast! Please? Can we see him again?”

That was the last straw for Tony. He felt his calm demeanor decay as he looked to Peter and nodded roughly. “Fine. But I’m not sure where he is right now, so don’t complain if we can’t find him.”

Peter giggled and started to eat the vegetables on his plate

______________

“Okay, just remember. If we can’t find Steve, you have a bunch of other friends back at the hotel room we can hang out with. Right? Mr. Ducky, Mr. Doggie? They can hang out with us instead.”

“Yep.” Peter said, swinging his arms in an odd way that had Tony chuckling to himself softly. He loved the kid so much, and he had known as soon as they had left the restaurant that he wouldn’t be mad at him long.

They walked in the direction of the hotel, the restaurant they had been eating at only a few blocks away from where they were staying. Tony decided to take an alternate route on his way back, opting to cut through the beach to increase his chances of finding Steve. It was a risky decision, but he remembered Steve saying he liked to walk the beach at night during their breakfast together earlier that day. He silently prayed that the other man had been telling the truth and that he wasn’t currently trudging through a dark beach with his son for no reason.

Tony knew they were close to the hotel when he saw two large flags flapping harshly in the wind. One had the state flag on it while the other had the name of the hotel, (The Maralyn Hotel), in bold blue lettering that Tony could still read despite the darkness.

Since they were approaching the hotel and he still had no sign of Steve, he took Peter’s hand and sighed. “I don’t think he’s out here, buddy. He’s probably back home by now. Maybe we can find him in the morning, though-”

“Look, Daddy! There he is!” Peter squealed, pointing his finger into the dark.

Tony squinted, at first only seeing a group of seagulls perched onto the hotel’s fence. But a few seconds later, the details of a flower print shirt and windswept blond hair came into view. The figure was extremely familiar, but he knew for sure it was Steve and not someone else when he saw the man look peacefully up at the sky to watch the stars. It was an action that was so small, yet so undeniably _Steve_ that Tony found himself taking Peter’s hand and swiftly walking toward him. 

Steve was still looking up high until Tony cleared his throat to try and grab his attention. It worked, and Steve stepped back abruptly before recognizing the two and laughing. 

“Tony? Peter? What are you doing here?” 

Tony laughed too, his eyes lowering to the sand as he shrugged. “Just walking back from dinner. I can’t believe I ran into you here.”

_Well, that was a fucking lie. It wasn’t like I ran into him, more like purposely tried to find him walking alone on a dark beach-_

“Must be a sign. Right before you called for me I saw a shooting star.” Steve said, his voice so soft that it was almost a whisper.

Tony didn’t ask Steve to explain what he meant by “must be a sign”, though he desperately wanted to. Instead, he watched as Peter slipped from his grasp to run over to Steve, his son jumping up and down in an excited way that had Steve chuckling loudly.

“Hi Steve! What’s your favorite color?”

Tony couldn’t help but notice how happy Peter looked as he greeted Steve. Sure, he was like that with nearly everyone, but something about the way he was giggling and launching into questions so suddenly made Tony sure that Peter liked Steve more than the average stranger.

“Hmm. I like blue and red.” Steve said, flashing Peter a bright smile

Peter started to grow even more excited, if that was somehow still possible. “I love blue and red! That’s the colors in my bedroom. Daddy made it for me, all by himself.”

Tony felt his stomach flutter as Steve looked over to him. “That’s so cool. You have a really great Dad, Peter.”

Tony flushed, suddenly glad that the darkness was able to hide his face. “Well, I didn’t really make it. More like… bought some furniture online and found out I had to build it all by myself. I guess I still made it happen, though. And improved it, made it better. I’m kinda good with tools. I like putting things together.”

“Impressive. And I like lions too.” Steve said, glancing down at Peter. “I like how they roar.”

Tony’s lips curved into a gentle smile, watching his son agree wholeheartedly and jump around for the billionth time that night. “Yay! I love lions! Dada, can Steve go to the zoo with us tomorrow? I want him to see the lions with us.”

Tony grimaced, knowing Peter was getting greedy for more time with Steve. His son really liked the other man, more than any other stranger Tony had watched Peter meet before. He didn’t want to deny him time with Steve, but he didn’t want to make Steve uncomfortable either.

But underneath those reasons was a deeper, more complicated reason for Tony’s confliction over Steve joining them at the zoo.

Eventually he sighed, coming up behind Peter and touching him on his shoulder gently. “Let’s let Steve do his own stuff tomorrow, Peter. He’s probably really busy.”

“Actually, I’m free during the daytime. I could come, if you guys want. I know the zoo really well.” Steve said, eyes sparkling with excitement that was almost similar to Peter’s.

Tony couldn’t help but notice the way his heartbeat quickened when Steve offered to come along. There was an anxious knot in his stomach as well, both symptoms of some kind of feelings he had for the man across from him.

He shook his head and tried to focus on Steve. “Um. Sure. Y-yeah. You can come.”

“Cool! Just explain to me what you want to see and I can help you around. I’m pretty well-educated on all the animals there, by the way. My friend Bucky works there, so he tells me a lot of stories. You’ll probably notice him right when we get there, he usually works the ticket counter…”

Peter seemed enraptured with what Steve was saying while Tony simply gave an absent stare and nodded. He was just trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had confirmed, set plans with Steve tomorrow. Unreasonably dashing, perfectly charming Steve.

“...in one giant loop. You can also ride a horse there, if you want to. They have super small ponies for kids to ride.”

Peter, being the ball of energy he was, squealed ecstatically at the idea of riding a horse. Tony, on the other hand, experienced the early symptoms of a heart attack.

Steve seemed to notice Tony’s blatant panicking and quickly shook his head at Peter. “There’s- there’s other things to do, though. You can run around on the playground instead, yeah? Would you want to do that, Peter?”

Peter nodded enthusiastically and Tony’s worrying subsided. That kid would seriously do anything as long as Steve suggested it.

“How does noon sound for the zoo, Tony?”

Tony nodded at Steve and grabbed Peter’s hand in his. “Sounds great. We’ll meet you there.”

Steve grinned. “Awesome. Meet you there.”

________________________

Tony took his room key out of his pocket, opening the door and immediately setting Peter down on their hotel bed. His son had worn himself out as soon as they had parted from Steve, and he didn’t even notice when Tony tucked the sheets around him and kissed him softly on the head.

Tony was glad- the zoo tomorrow would surely exhaust the poor four-year-old. He definitely needed the extra sleep.

Tony, on the other hand, couldn’t fall asleep.

Each time he closed his eyes he saw Steve. Tony tried to filter the thoughts of him out of his mind, but all he could imagine was a scenario with them sharing a kiss. A soft one, with Steve’s pinkish lips pressed against his own as the other man held him with strong arms and-

The thought kept popping up, and it inhibited him from getting sleep. 

Steve was just too goddamn perfect. Everything about him, from his face to his personality to the way he was around Peter.

Tony had finally reached an acceptance of his fate. A certain blond was going to ruin his vacation in the best possible way.


End file.
